


An Exercise In Love

by Rinzler



Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, M/M, gym!AU, written by someone who has never gone to a gym in their life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 20:41:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5019721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinzler/pseuds/Rinzler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not like Barry ever really hated going to the gym. It's just become a lot more enjoyable, if slightly embarrassing, ever since the stranger with the ice-blue eyes started showing up and making Barry trip all over the treadmill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Exercise In Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WacheyPena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WacheyPena/gifts), [kipsi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kipsi/gifts).



“Iris!” Barry almost-shouted from the entryway. “It happened again!”

Iris looked up from where she’d been reviewing her interview notes, spread out across the dining room table. She had an article due to her editor by 8 pm that would be making its way into the paper about the push for clean energy and the recent Earth Day event in Central City. “What is it, Barry?” She said.

She was almost finished with her article and still had five more hours before the deadline, so Iris figured she could spare some time to hear what had happened.

Barry rounded the corner from the entry hall into the small kitchen and flopped down into the chair opposite her with a sigh, though carefully enough not to disturb her notes. Iris smiled a little. Thank god Barry was too tired to run in and out like he normally did, sweeping wind and chaos in his wake. She kept reminding herself to invest in paperweights, but the thought always slipped her mind.

Barry leaned his head back in the chair and threw one arm over his eyes with a dramatic groan. “He was there again, Iris.” He said.

She blinked and took a second to try and recall previous conversations of this nature. Coming up blank, Iris put down the page of notes she was holding. “Him? Him who?” She said.

Barry sat up. “The guy from the gym,” he said. Iris blinked.

“Ohhh. Him. Mr. I’m-Devastatingly-Sexy with the ice blue eyes and the guns? The one you’ve been pining over the last several times you went to the gym?”

Barry groaned and buried his head in his hands. “I do not describe him like that!” He groaned.

Irish shrugged unrepentantly. “You kind of do, Bear. Sorry,” she said. “Anyway, so what about him?”

“I went back to the gym today and he was there,” Barry said, sitting up straight before slouching a little as his ears went red. “He wasn’t wearing a shirt this time! And I think he might have been looking at me!”

“Really?” Iris gasped, dropping the pen in her hand.

“Yes, really,” Barry said. “Well… I mean… I think he might have been looking at me. But I didn’t want to assume. Patty was on the treadmill next to me.”

“Assume all you want, Barry Allen!” Iris said. “Now. Details,” she said, leaning forward eagerly.

Barry grinned a little as his ears went redder. “Well, I chose the treadmill at the end of the line this time, because when I got there it was the only one open. After a while the rush cleared out though, and Patty and I were the only ones left. Then he…. Um… Yeah. I saw him.”

“Doing what?” Iris asked.

“He was at one of the punching bags in the corner. I guess he’d been there for a while? He was all, um-”

“Shirtless and sweaty and ready to go a few rounds?”

“IRIS!”

“What?” She said, trying to stifle her giggles at seeing Barry blush so red at her words. “It’s not like it’s not true, right?”

Barry stared at the floor. “Anyway,” he said, waiting until Iris’s giggles had died down a little, “I guess I was staring at him a little longer than I thought? Because he looked up and saw me looking at him and kind of smirked at me.”

“Nasty smirk or a come-hither smirk?” Iris asked. Barry blushed redder.

“I think it was more the second one,” he said. “I think.”

“And I’m assuming you ran away right after that?” Iris asked. Barry looked ready to deny it before guiltily glancing down at the table. Iris sighed. “Honestly, Barry, you should just go talk to him one day! This guy is all you talk about every time you visit the gym. You went on Monday just to see if he would be there. Monday, Barry.”

“He’s probably not even looking at me,” Barry said morosely. He poked at a stack of notes on the table and it began to wobble a bit. Iris shot him a warning glare and he stopped. “Or if he is, he’s probably just wondering what I’m doing ogling him.”

Iris resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Barry, you are a man in your twenties. This isn’t high school. He isn’t going to beat you up for looking at him wrong. And even if he tries, Eddie and Joe are both police, remember? Besides, you’re really attractive, so it’s not like he minds. Probably.”

“I just don’t know how to start talking to him,” Barry said despairingly. “How would I even begin that conversation? I can’t just walk over and say ‘hi, I might have been watching you for the past week and I think you’re really hot!’ I can’t even look at him for too long. He’s that hot, Iris. Guys like him- even if he is gay or bisexual- don’t look twice at guys like me.” Barry slumped over until his head rested on the table and said in a muffled voice, “He’s so out of my league it’s unbelievable.”

Iris huffed and smacked him over the head with a manila folder. “Bartholomew Henry Allen! You are a perfectly attractive young man with an amazing smile and a great sense of humor. You are the most adorable nerd I know! And that is a very rare species that a lot of people are surprisingly into. You won’t know unless you try. Just ask him if he wants to go for coffee or something. It doesn’t have to be a huge dinner-and-a-movie deal.”

Barry lifted his head up from the table slightly and looked at her. “You really think I should go for it?”

“Of course,” Iris said reassuringly. Then she began to grin a little wickedly. “Besides, if this guy’s biceps and jawline are half as amazing as you make them sound, then I need to see. For science.”

Barry groaned and dropped his head back onto the table, but Iris could see him start to smile.


End file.
